Sermon Tone Analysis

Thanks very much, Jeff.

It's my privilege to get to speak to you this morning.

My name is Matt.

And I'm one of the leaders here at Hope City and just really excited to see you.

But the sunshine makes such a difference to me.

I'm like such a lightweight, but a sunny beautiful morning, really picks me up in some really thankful for that today.

Now today.

I want to talk about captivity and freedom of captivity and freedom.

I don't know if you have ever had the experience of being properly.

Looked half of being a captive.

Perhaps you have never considered it from a distance.

Where can I find the idea terrifying?

I'm a rapist, children's book like years and years ago, 15 to 20 years ago.

Now, telling the story of a Romanian, Pastor leading in the underground Church in Romania, under communist Rule and how he was in prison time for years and years and years.

In various places under terrible conditions for his face.

Now, it's been years since I've heard that story.

But you aren't children's books like that, like a children's book.

Anyway, I can't get that horror of that.

Captivity out of my mind.

Now, he was held captive in park just to stop him talking about Jesus.

I don't want any more of that talkin about Jesus is what the authorities were thinking, but he was also held in captive as a punishment, as a punishment to him, and I was thinking about this.

Why is captivity understood as punishment?

Not just restrain.

Right?

Why is captivity punishment?

I think it's because we were made fundamentally to be free.

We were made fundamentally to be free, and we long to be free in captivity, just grinds against, but part of our nature.

Now, we've been working through a letter in the Bible from Paul, who was one of Jesus's first followers to a group of churches.

He started in what's today.

Modern-day turkey.

And one of the surprises for us in that we walk through it is the way Paul talks about Jewish law.

Jewish law is the set of regulations and rules from God that defined how the Jewish people should live.

As harsh things about the law when he himself was Jewish and before he started following Jesus.

He was into the little big X.

There was nothing more important to him than that.

In today's passage, Paul is going to describe this Jewish little as holding people captive as locking them up.

He describes it.

Like it's a policeman with a truncheon ready to whack them.

So they stay in line odesza, the pretty negative description.

But it really was constricting,.

He told you who you can marry and who you couldn't marry.

Don't like that.

Idea want to be free.

I told you how you should dress.

I don't like that idea.

I Want to Be Free, told you how you could Harvest your fields and where you could not harvested told you how you should cut your hair.

Whatever you might be thinking.

That's really, really interesting.

But I'm not Jewish.

So what's that got to do with me, will get out of jail, free card.

It's no escape from being captive under low low top under it because we all live under Laurel, like it or not.

Now, and we're going to read in a bit talks about every one of us being held in captivity being held in slavery, under what he calls the basic principles of the world, the basic principles of the world.

And what's he getting out there?

Anything that enforces constraints on our Behavior makes us captive and it locks us up in a way.

It's a basic principle of the world that you can get away from the world you live in school.

So we let it go.

I live here too.

As soon as it turns out.

We live in Scotland.

We live under a boatload of lost.

Zillions of them.

I'm hardly held captive by scuffed as long as he's good things and right things and I want to do these and I'm happy to be held in by this, but the truth is you are still Captain if you owe it to them, because the law goes against our nature.

The Lord gives against our basic desire for freedom is, it does restrict us is needed, is needed to restrain evil and to promote good.

I think my taxes.

For example.

Okay.

Do you pay your taxes?

I hope you to pay your taxes.

The law says You must put.

Imagine from it.

If we didn't have that.

Don't worry.

It'll be fine.

How well do you think that would work?

Why is taxpaying primarily in our country?

Or is it is enforcing care for one another.

Here's a picture of how our taxes in the UK are spend right of the welfare looking after people who are need help, looking after people who are sick, pensions looking after people who were old, like a huge portion of our taxes are spent on caring for one another.

Now, we can just say this is all purely voluntary.

Okay, you can look after other people's health, or care for them when they're down if you like, but if you don't no worries, how well do you think that would work?

How long with the NHS function?

To achieve this good, right?

By any chance to cheese, welfare.

We need loyal to restrain our freedom.

We need to load to restrain our freedom or think about equality legislation.

Like there's a big deal right now.

Why do we have a qualities legislation?

Because by Nature end up in an equal Society The principles of the world tell us that freedom.

Unfortunately his intention with the good.

All these different girls were talking about welfare care.

What's the difference between freedom is intention with them?

We we don't naturally pursue the good we want to see.

And so we need the law.

The law makes us captive.

It takes our freedom.

I a soud like it.

Now, there are two big problems with the situation.

We find ourselves in one.

We're not free under this law.

Work with tracked, by it were held captive by and to think it still are not good.

Right side and things are better than they were.